As computer networks, and the applications that run on them, continue to expand through the addition of new elements or the acquisition or incorporation of other networks, it becomes significantly more difficult to monitor and display the information or many interactions, referred to herein as information, that may occur among the network elements and the applications they support.
System administrators utilize a graphical user interface (GUI) to display properties of one or more network parameters, such as notifications, network maps, configurations, etc. With current interfaces, as elements are selected, information or context regarding the selected element is displayed in a new “window.” In this case, “window” refers to a section on a computer screen, typically rectangular, in which images are outputted by application programs and the terms “window” and “display,” when used as a noun, are used interchangeably herein. Windows can be displayed, moved around or resized. These windows can display a visual representation of an analysis that was performed on a set of elements in the network. The analysis may show items such as status, state, performance, availability metrics and relationship to other adjacent elements. Often a user would create different visual representations of an analysis or a dataset, perhaps graphically as a pie chart in one window, a table in a second window and as a topology map in a third window. Multiple visual representations are advantageous as users may utilize concurrent multiple displays to inspect a common set of network elements in order to rapidly come to a conclusion and if necessary, take action.
As the user interacts with one of the displayed windows it would also be valuable if the other windows automatically adjusted themselves to remain focused on the same set of elements the user is inspecting.
However, the multiple windows necessary to see this multi-dimensional view are typically displayed over already existing windows and the information in the existing windows is obstructed and no longer readable. The operator, desiring to read or review information in a blocked window, is required to move or minimize the one or more windows that are blocking the display containing the desired information. This continuous scaling of the windows or displays to view desired information presents a significant burden on the operator, as continuous monitoring of large networked systems is necessary.
Further, similar information may be accessed through different windows presentations and, thus, duplicative information is contained in separate windows. The presentation of the same information in different windows is confusing, burdensome, a waste of resources and screen real-estate. Further such presentation requires unnecessary keystrokes and time for the user to synchronize the multiple display windows.
Further, the reduced visibility of information in obstructed windows may result in a failure of identifying critical information needed to analyze and prevent a potential failure in the network. Still more, it requires unnecessary keystrokes and time for the user to synchronize these multiple windows.
Hence, there is a need in the industry for a method and system that simplifies the process of accessing and displaying information or data associated with a large number of entities and enabling simultaneous alternative views of this information to stay in synchronization with each other.